Digital still cameras have
come a long way fast and have reached the threshold of really
being able to replace traditional film cameras for most users.

They come in many shapes
and sizes and a rather bewildering array of controls and features.

When they first began to
appear on the market a few years ago, consumers were faced with
relatively simple choices between low-cost point-and-shoot models
that offered pretty low resolution that was fine for use on the
World Wide Web or for small snapshots and expensive and bulky
units that often offered the option of interchangeable lens and
resolution good enough for medium-size prints.

In 2001, several manufacturers,
such as Sony, Minolta, Olympus, Fuji and Nikon introduced models
that were capable of sufficiently high enough resolution, 5 megapixels
or more, to produce 11-by-14-inch prints of good quality. Canon
and Contax were also planning similar models.

These digital cameras are
capable of producing 8-by-10-inch prints that are virtually indistinguishable
from traditional film cameras, assuming the user has the right
computer software and printer and the results at 11-by-14 and
13-by-19-inch are quite acceptable generally.

The main trade-off now is
that traditional film cameras offer a much broader and better
quality range of lenses, but Canon, Nikon and Contax offer expensive
models that can use their extensive line of lenses. The technology,
however, has been moving so quickly in the last couple of years
that many users are postponing such purchases and getting less
expensive, although not cheap, models that have limited capabilities
in terms of optics but can still take care of most requirements.

There are many factors to
consider in buying a digital still camera: resolution, zoom range,
the "speed" of the lens, memory storage, ergonomics,
size, battery life, accessories, special features and price.

Resolution

Digital cameras offering
1 to 1.5-megapixel resolution can now be bought for about $300.
This resolution is fine for the Web and can produce, with some
computer manipulation, nice 3-by-5-inch prints. The next level
of about 2-to-2.5 megapixels can now be bought for about $500
to $800 and can produce very good 4-by-6-inch prints and not bad
8-by-10-inch prints. Digital cameras in the 3-megapixel range
sell for about $800 and up and produce very good 8-by-10-inch
prints and cameras in the 4-megapixel range sell for about $1,000
and up and produce good 11-by-14-inch prints. The 5-megapixel
cameras generally sell for about $1,000 to $2,000 and produce
very good 11-by-14-inch prints.

Virtually all these cameras
are capable of taking pictures are lower than their highest resolution,
which means that more pictures can be stored on their storage
media and less time is involved in transferring the images into,
and working on them in, a computer.

Some new printers from Sony,
Epson, Hewlett Packard and Olympus, among others, can permit users
to bypass transferring images from a camera and print directly
from the camera's storage media. Not all these printers, however,
accept all storage media and some only print snapshots and others
are limited to 8-by-10-inch prints.

While there is no question
that more resolution is better because it offers greater detail
and less "jaggie" artifacts, it also results in substantially
larger computer files. Some of the first digital cameras only
were capable of producing 640-by-480-pixel resolution at 72 pixels-per-inch,
a resolution that was adequate for displaying images on the Web,
but not very good for printing. The new five-megapixel cameras
actually produce images, and files, that are about 20 times bigger
before they are resized. While these cameras offer various modes
of file compression, the difference in loading and manipulating
such images is substantial, especially when one considers that
one may be working with 10 to 20 such images at a session.

(There are several types
of "resolution": lens, sensors, computer monitor, and
printer. Lens resolution is determined by testing its ability
to clearly distinguish test patterns and these results, published
in some photography magazines, are not generally advertised by
manufacturers. Sensors are the electronic devices within the cameras
that "capture" the image and they come in different
sizes, usually measured in inches, and resolutions, usually measured
in "megapixels." Most sensors are considerably smaller
than the traditional 35-mm film size and as a result the lens
are generally smaller and the lens size usually has to be "translated"
into its 35-mm equivalent and not all "multiples" are
the same. A larger sensor does not necessary mean higher resolution
but there can be a difference in the size of the "pixels"
and larger pixels generally result in better pictures. Manufacturers
usually do not specific the size of the pixels but do provide
information on the size of the sensor and the number of pixels.
Today's computer monitors are capable of many different resolutions.
Originally they were 640-by-480, but 800-by-600 soon became the
standard although larger monitors, 19 inches and more, are capable
of showing considerably higher resolutions that most people can
read easily. Images displayed on the monitor vary in size depending
on the resolution setting for the monitor. Printer resolution
is measured in dots-per-inch, or dpi, and most images are printed
at 150 dpi or more and many printers are capable of 720 dpi or
more. One may view an image at 150 ppi on the monitor but chose
to print at 720 dpi, which is confusing but the higher the dpi
setting the sharper the image will look, although it will take
longer to print. The printer, in such cases, extrapolates the
additional information in such cases and is not actually making
the computer file sharper.)

Zoom Range

Whereas the debate over
the quality of zoom lenses versus single, fixed-length lens waged
for decades with traditional film cameras, most digital still
cameras, apart from the very expensive "pro" units that
can accept interchangeable lenses, come with zooms. Today, there
are many very high quality traditional film camera zooms. The
digital still camera zooms, however, are generally of much shorter
range than is now widely available in traditional film cameras,
and, more importantly, most only range from semi-wide-angle to
semi-telephoto, a range that became popular with many traditional,
inexpensive, "point-and-shoot" cameras for amateurs
not fully aware of the wonders of wide-angle and telephoto lenses.

Whereas many digital camcorders
offer zooms of 10-power (10x) or more, most digital still cameras
offer only 3x and virtually all of them have their lower setting
in the equivalent range of a 35-mm semi-wide-angle traditional
film camera lens. In contrast, many of the newer traditional film
camera zoom lenses today can go from 24-mm to 200-mm, or so, which
is very wide to 4-power magnification at the telephoto end whereas
most digital still camera 3x zooms have a top telephoto equivalent
of about 115-mm. Olympus offers a model with a 10x zoom, but it
is relatively slow and also has a low megapixel count.

Lens Speed

A faster lens, that is,
one with a lower f/stop number, is able to gather more light and
therefore able to stop action better and result in less blurry
pictures. While some of the better and more expensive 35mm zoom
lenses have fixed apertures, such as a 70-210 f2.8 lens, many
have variable apertures that decrease in ability to capture light
as more telephoto ranges are used, such as 28-200mm f/3.8-5.6
lens. Most digital camera zoom lenses have variable apertures
and some of the less expensive models are actually quite "slow"
and have apertures of f/3.7-8.0 or the like. Some of the better
and more expensive models, however, have fairly "fast"
zoom lenses, some of which start at f/1.8 and several at about
f/2.4. While the difference between f/1.8 and f/2 is only half
a stop, the difference between f/2 and f/3.5 is one-and-a-half
stops and a definite difference. In video, some blue can be tolerated,
but still photography is much more demanding, so the faster lens
aperture range the better.

Memory Storage

When digital still cameras
were first introduced, they were not capable of taking pictures
in great detail and memory storage choices were limited. Remarkably,
the pace of technology has advanced rapidly in just a few years
in both the megapixel and storage area. There are several memory
cards/cartridges/microdrives now available that can store scores
of megabytes and even a gigabyte of memory and Sony has introduced
its own proprietary "memory stick" that is much smaller,
about the size of a stick of chewing gum, and which has steadily
increased in capacity, up to 128 megabytes in early 2002, and
lowered in price, about $90 for a 128-megabyte "stick"
in early 2002.

Most of the better digital
still cameras offer users the ability to switch between different
resolutions using the same memory "device." A user could
take a bunch of low-resolution pictures that are fine for use
on the World Wide Web of the Internet or just a few uncompressed
"Tiff" files that take up almost 12 megabytes a pictures
but offer resolution could enough to print a detailed 11-by-14-inch
image. They also offer several other in-between settings so that
a sizable memory device might contain a score of high resolution
pictures or hundreds of low-resolution pictures.

Ergonomics

Up until a decade or so
ago, camera shapes were quite similar: either boxy, or T-shaped.
Now, they run a very wide and strange gamut. There are tall, vertical
format cameras, softly curved pocket cameras, and asymmetrical
and rather ungainly shapes. Apparently, manufacturers feel that
style is less important than features for many users, but also
some apparently feel that young consumers may not remember that
the classic and traditional Nikon F or Leica M-series camera styles
that dominated camera styles for decades and may also prefer "hipper"
styles.

Digital still cameras are
considerably smaller, by and large, than their full-featured 35-mm
cousins. Indeed, one of the problems users are encountering is
that they are all almost too small, at least for those with fat
fingers and dim eyesight.

There are a great many ergonomic
factors to consider: Does it feel comfortable and balanced? Are
the most important controls easily identified and conveniently
placed? Does it work equally well for left-handed persons as right-handed?
Is it easy to load and/or change batteries and memory devices,
and attach accessories such as flash units, lenses, filters, and
tripods. Does it have convenient inputs and outputs? Does it have
both a LCD and a viewfinder and are they both in color and have
adequate resolution? Are the LCD and/or viewfinder adjustable
and viewable in different positions? Is the viewfinder representing
what the camera sees or merely an approximation that may have
parallax problems? Are some controls too close to others and too
easy to accidentally press? Is the information legible on the
LCD and/viewfinder?

Size

Minaturization is marvelous,
usually, but there comes a point when too much is crammed into
too little space, especially for some of the "prosumer"
models that offer many features of interest to professionals such
as manual control, white balance settings and the like.

Taking a cue from the popularity
of LCD panels on camcorders, most digital still cameras offer
a small LCD, usually less than 2 inches. (Most camcorders offer
2 1/2 to 4-inch LCD panels, many of which are hinged so they can
be seen from the front of the camera for those important self-portraits
with timers.) There is a very big difference between a 1.8-inch
and a 4-inch LCD panel in terms of being able to see details and
the 3-plus-megapixel digicams are capable of capturing considerable
detail, most of which, however, does not show up in the LCD panel.
Most digicams have quite good autofocusing but many also have
fairly long "warm-up" times and blurred shots do occur.

There are basically three
categories of size: pocket, medium and professional. The pocket
size digicams are like point-and-shoot 35mm cameras and are extremely
small and very convenient, but are usually quite limited in capabilities
such as zoom lens. Nonetheless, there is a wide and impressive
range of quality in the pocket category and these cameras are
priced according to the quality of construction and features.

The medium category more
closely resemble traditional 35-mm camera design but are more
compact. Olympus and Minolta have very slick and well-designed
cameras in this category and the top models are in the $2,000
and $1,500 range, respectively. Nikon has a line of "twist"
cameras in the under $1,000 price range that are not as full-featured
as the Olympus and Minolta top-of-the-line and which also are
a bit too big for most pockets. Sony's top-of-the-line "cybershot"
digital still cameras are rather large with a huge cylindrical
lens/flash component that is hinged to the left edge of a small
panel that is perpendicular to it. Its top model is full-featured
and has a list price of $999.

The "prosumer,"
top-of-the-line digicams from Nikon, Canon, Kodak and Fuji are
generally bigger than their 35mm counterparts and are very expensive,
usually starting at $4,000. They have the great advantage, of
course, of being able to use most, if not all, of those manufacturer's
35mm lenses. The use of the 35mm lenses is wonderful for special
purposes, although it should be remembering that they are scaled
for different image capture and therefore users have to apply
a "multiplier" factor to determine the actual 35mm equivalent
of the lens.

In considering camera size,
one should not forget accessories such as lens hood, flash unit,
auxiliary lenses, storage devices, cables, filters and the like.
Some of the wide-angle lenses, for example, are surprisingly huge
and many cases that stores sell do not have room for all the accessories.

Battery Life

Some of the "pocket"
digicams operate on normal and easily obtainable small flashlight
batteries, but others use rechargeable lithium batteries that
are bigger and last longer. The latter, however, are small because
the manufacturers want to keep the size of the camera down and
as a result have relatively short battery life, requiring almost
all users to purchase at least one extra battery. Many of these
batteries only last for about an hour and half. The LCD panels
consume a fair bit of energy so many users turn them off and use
the viewfinders, which consumer less energy. Turning the camera
on and off frequently usually uses more energy than continuous
use. Whereas battery technology has advanced fantastically in
recent years with camcorders to the point where some batteries
can operate for up to 8 hours, these are much larger batteries.

Most cameras are sold with
a battery recharging "kit" but usually these are plugged
directly into the camera and therefore render its use during recharging
quite limited. Furthermore, these "kits" are generally
not "speed" chargers. Most manufacturers, however, offer
separate "speed" battery chargers that are considerable
faster and do not have to be plugged into the camera and also
some provide readouts of how much time is remaining to fully charge
the battery. Such "speed" chargers are excellent but
can cost as much as $150 and are often about as big as the camera
itself.

Accessories

Accessories really drive
up the cost of a digicam. Many first-time users may think they
do not need, or want, many of the accessories, but they will discover
their usefulness pretty quickly.

A skylight filter is a must
to protect the more expensive lenses, especially since only the
"prosumer" models have interchangeable lens capability
and damage to a non-interchangeable lens pretty much destroys
the camera and can be very expensive to replace/repair. Skylight
filters fortunately are not too expensive, especially those made
by independent manufacturers. Polarizing filters, which are very
helpful in removing unwanted reflections although they make a
lens "slower" by cutting down on the light it can transmit,
are also wonderful and are a little more expensive than skylight
filters.

Most of the digicams come
with built-in flashes, many with red-eye-reduction-strobing features.
These flashes, however, are usually good only for short distances
and also have a fixed position and cannot be "bounced"
and aim only directly forward. Most manufacturers have separate
flash units that can be attached to the digicam that are stronger
and also adjusted to "bounce" their light upwards to
provide softer lighting and avoid much of the red-eye problems.
In addition, the separate flash units, which are usually mounted
in a "hot" shoe atop the digicam also enable the user
to shoot flash with a large wide-angle lens attached that would
normally block much of the light from the built-in flash. These
separate flash units can cost $100 or more.

Most digicams come with
limited zoom ranges, usually from medium wide-angle to portrait.
Many manufacturers also sell wide-angle and/or telephone auxiliary
lens that screw into the front of the digicam's lens. Independent
manufacturers also sell a variety of such lenses. Some of these
lenses, it should be noted, are quite large and significantly
alter the balance of the camera. Most of the wide-angle lens permit
users to get about 0.7 or 0.8 magnification which results in the
equivalent of about a 28mm 35mm lenses, which is quite good for
party pictures and landscapes, but not sufficient for extreme
panoramas. Similarly, the telephoto lenses usually are limited
to 1.4 to 2.0 magnification which extends into the semi-telephoto
range 35mm equivalent of 150-200mm. For many photographers, wider
and longer lenses are very desirable and these really are only
available with the expensive "prosumer" models.

Special Features

Over the past two decades,
many photographers have gotten use to a bewildering array of control
options on their 35mm cameras that affect aperture and shutter
and program modes as well focusing points, exposure bracketing,
rapid shooting, and the like. Many of the better digicams now
offer similar controls although usually the list of features is
not quite as extensive as the top-of--the-line 35mm cameras. Most
users rarely access most of these features once they have set
up their cameras for normal shooting, but they are of great importance
to many professionals who confront difficult shooting conditions
often and cannot afford to miss the shot. The transition to film-less,
digital photography is now accelerating, however, due to the advances
in resolution and memory storage and the inherent advantages of
digital photography and as a result more and more features are
being crammed into the high-end digicams including some that are
quite novel.

Some of the digicams now
permit users to record very short videos with sound, usually only
about a dozen or so seconds and some, like the Sony cybershots,
permit "nightshot" infrared pictures that are greenish
but can be taken in total darkness. Time-lapse photography is
also available in some models as well as "macro" modes
for extreme close-ups.

Price

By and large, you get what
you pay for, which is to say that the more expensive the digicam
the better features it has.

When they were first introduced
some of the prosumer digicams cost upwards of $30,000 and now
only a few years later they can be had for $4,000 to $6,000 (for
the basic camera, not a "complete" outfit.)

For those who acquired the
early prosumer models, the drawback was that the resolution technology
was still far from ideal and many only were capable of 2- and
3-megapixel resolution, barely enough for good 8-by-10-inch prints.
In early 2002, Fuji and Contax were offering 6-megapixel models
and Nikon and Canon 5-megapixel models, good enough for pretty
good 11-by-14 prints and excellent 8-by-10-inch prints. The Contax
model even offered a capture device that was just about the same
size as a normal 35mm image meaning that no "translation"
was necessary and that its light-gathering capabilities were vastly
improved. Nonetheless, many professional photographers will not
be happy until resolution ascends up to the 8- to 16-megapixel
range that should be capable of great detail in pretty large prints.
Such units will eventually appear most likely but they will not
be cheap.

For most users, however,
the 5-megapixel digicam is fine, permitting very nice, popular-size
enlargements and the ability to easily switch to lower resolutions
when the end use does not require as much detail.

Users should remember, however,
that the cost of accessories can almost double the acquisition
cost of a digicam and that technology is moving so quickly that
new models with better features often are introduced at the same
price levels.

Sony
DSC-707

This is sony's top-of-the-line
digicam as of early 2002 and with a list price of $999 it is the
best buy in the medium-size prosumer category because of its very
fine Zeiss lens and its many features.

The Zeiss lens is a 5-power
zoom with a 35mm equivalency of a 38-190mm lens. This camera also
has a 2-power digital zoom capability that theoretically extends
the zoom to a 380mm equivalent although most experts agree that
the digital zoom extensions degrade quality considerably. Zeiss
makes lenses for Hasselblad and Contax and their lenses are widely
regarded as unsurpassed. The lens is quite fast with a f/2-2.4
maximum setting.

This 5-megapixel digicam
can take uncompressed TIFF files that are almost 12 megabytes
in size at 2590x1920 resolution, and are good enough for enlargements
in the 11-by-14-inch range. It is also capable of taking pictures
at lower resolutions to fit more images onto its memory sticks,
which come in 4- to 128-megabyte size, with large capacities planned
as of early 2002.

This is an ungainly beast.
The very large lens barrel, which also contains the built-in,
pop-up flash and numerous controls, is hinged to the left end
of a perpendicular and quite small body. The lens barrel can be
moved up and down to permit a pretty wide range of viewing conditions
although its LCD panel on the rear of the body is not hinged so
that it cannot be swung totally around to permit self-portrait
viewing.

The rocker button for the
wide-angle/telephoto zoom is located on the left side of the lens
barrel requiring two-handed use of the digicam, which is a little
inconvenient compared to some other digicams and camcorders that
permit single-handed operation. Furthermore, the wide-angle settings
are on top and telephoto settings are at the bottom of the rocker,
which is a bit counter-intuitive.

The camera sports a 1.8-inch
LCD that is quite bright but still do small to make out the many
details the digicam is capable of. The camera also has a fixed-position
color viewfinder and users may switch between it and the LCD panel
by pressing a "display" button just to the right of
the viewfinder.

A rotary dial atop the body
has settings for taking pictures, reviewing pictures, shutter
priority, aperture priority, manual, programming scenes, and set-up.
Each different setting has its own "menu" that is accessed
by pressing the small "menu" bottom at the rear of the
body just to the left of the five-directional rocker select button.
This circular button enables the user to navigate up and down
and left and right on the menus shown on the LCD panel and also
to press inwards to select a menu choice. The button takes a little
while to get used to but works well and is well constructed as
is the camera.

This camera has controls
for auto- and manual focus, white balance, auto-exposure lock,
and spot-metering and it also has a ten-second self-timer.

It also has two unusual
special features, "nightshot" and "hologram"
focusing. The former is a feature Sony has long used on its high-end
camcorders and it permits greenish monochrome shots to be taken
in total darkness, à la spy cameras. The latter feature
uses lasers with "gentle radiation" Sony claims "maintains
higher safety for human eyes" that is good for 4.5 meters
as an aid in focusing in low light. It emits a grid pattern of
red lights that focus the lens in very low light conditions. Although
the Zeiss lens is quite fast, the quality of images that appear
on the LCD panel in many low-light conditions is very dim, and
very hard to focus with. When the hologram focusing function is
enabled in the "setup" menu to "auto" the
function works automatically when necessary and is very helpful,
although it delays the taking of the picture a bit. This function
also does not work in certain camera modes such as nightshot or
landscape or when the wide-angle lens is attached.

There are three small holes
on the perimeter of the front of the lens barrel. The two are
the top are for the "nightshot" function and the one
at the lower right is for the hologram focusing. The nightshot
function is turned on by a switch on the top of the camera body.
The same switch also can turn on a "nightframing" function
that enables you to check a subject even at night and then record
with natural colors using the flash.

The 707 can also record
moving images with audio for about 15 seconds in MPEG format although
the image size is only 320-by-240 in its high-quality setting.

The camera has a USB connection
for computers. It also has a jog wheel at the front of the camera
body for changing values manually.

The camera can also be set
to take sepia, negative and solarized images and it can record
time and date.

Sony makes a very large
but thin wide-angle lens for this camera that significantly broadens
the view and does not manifest as much barrel distortion as some
wide-angle camcorder lenses.

This is a very high quality
camera of considerable complexity that takes some time to learn
but gives fine results.